


lemongrass and sleep

by elizaschuylers



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Pining, Slow Burn, im not really sure where this is going but its fine, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 02:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6734674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizaschuylers/pseuds/elizaschuylers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>adjusting to college life is hard especially when your roommate has the cutest nose and those dumb freckles</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i just really needed more eliza/maria so this is gonna be a thing!!! expect a lotta cute eventually

"I just don't know how you're so ready to literally ruin my life by leaving me forever," whined Peggy, empty handedly scaling the staircase behind a very weighed down Eliza, who rolled her eyes. She was accustomed to her younger sister's melodramatics but that didn't make them any less annoying. "Especially for a college that can't even keep an elevator working. That's an insult. To me. And to Lola."

"Don't bring Lola into this," Eliza shot back playfully. The dumb gray cat was definitely something she'd miss during her first semester away from home. Probably more than Peggy, at this rate. "And if you complain one more time I'm going to push you down the stairs," Eliza couldn't turn her head to look at her younger sister for fear of losing balance and falling down the stairs herself, but she was sure Peggy's pout had only grown. She heard a grumble from behind her about how they wouldn't even be on the stairs if Eliza had picked a different school, but she was too concentrated on dragging her suitcase up the last step to say anything else. She heard a huff from Peggy, who was suddenly at Eliza's side, offering to take the heavy duffel bag from where it sat on her shoulder. "You couldn't have done this four flights ago?" Peggy let a half grin replace her scowl for a half second and poked her older sister in the rib cage before moving past her to open the door into the hallway for her to roll her suitcase through.

The floor was buzzing with the type of excitement that she was sure only move in day could bring. Eliza had to pay close attention to where she was going in order to avoid running completely into one of the parents or students ducking in and out of rooms. While exchanging bruises with one of her new floor mates may be a great icebreaker, she wasn't sure she wanted to make her friends so confrontationally. And painfully. Some hesitant steps later she followed Peggy into her dorm room; they had to squish themselves against the bathroom door so their parents could file out first. There was no way the four of them as well as Eliza's various luggage could fit in the space, thanks to the extreme smallness of the room, even for a college dorm.

Eliza had only just wheeled the suitcase to a stop and pushed the handle down with a sharp jab of the heel of her hand before she was given the most aggressive hug she had ever been on the receiving end of. Peggy squeezed her tightly, burying her face into Eliza's shoulder. "Gonna miss you 'Liza," she said with a much softer tone than before, though that could've been primarily because it was so muffled against the fabric of Eliza's t-shirt.

The older girl heaved a deep sigh, wrapping her arms around Peggy. "You're gonna make me cry, you punk kid," she joked before pulling away from the hug and tapping Peggy lightly on the nose, "I'll miss you too, Pegs."

______________________________________

Thirty minutes, some tears, and some hugs later Eliza was sitting on her bed, alone. She had begun to hang various pictures and tiny sketches from the copper wire that her parents had helped to hang, and it was only reminding her of whom exactly she'd be missing the most. She clipped a picture of her, Peggy, and their oldest sister, Angelica, as little kids all covered in butterflies and squealing in delight next to a picture of her and Peggy in their prom dresses from last year. Beneath both of those was a messy pen sketch of Lola sitting on the edge of the bathtub, and beside that a picture of her parents at a baseball game when they were about as old as she was now. Eliza managed to convince herself that it was too early for any pangs of homesickness, and repressed the thought of her family.

In the last eighteen years of her life, she had almost always been attached at the hip to either Peggy or Angelica. She had to do this alone. Although at this point she was too alone. Her roommate's side was completely barren, despite check in being over almost an hour ago. The cozy look of Eliza's side with comfy sheets, pictures hanging from copper wire, and an organized desk looked almost comical compared to the other side of the room, which could really only be compared to a prison cell. A nice prison cell, like maybe the one Martha Stewart stayed in, but a prison cell nonetheless. Eliza had only talked to her roommate once, if a quick email that she got no response to even counted as talking. All she knew was that the girl was named Maria, she was a dance major, and was local. Other than that, she was an enigma and it seemed like she would remain as such until she showed up. If she showed up.

Her contemplative trance was cut short by a taller girl poking her head through the half open door, scanned the room before locking eyes with Eliza and smiling, "Eliza or Maria? I'm Abby, RA." She stuck her hand through the door and gave a slight wave, drawing a slight grin from Eliza at how funny it looked. Abby's expression changed as she realized the other half of the room was not only lacking another person, but was completely void of clothes and decorations and supplies. "No Eliza slash Maria?" She frowned, opening the door a bit wider to reveal a clipboard in her free hand.

"I'm Eliza, no Maria," she pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and stood.

"That's weird, she checked in and everything," Abby ran the pen down the paper attached to the clipboard, furrowing her eyebrows. "Maybe she's invisible," Abby shrugged, looking up at Eliza before seeming to have an epiphany. "Or maybe. . ." She turned on her heel, somehow even more focused on the task at hand. Eliza watched her go, stopping herself from calling after her and asking what was going on. She knew the staff was incredibly busy with the elevator malfunction, and the last thing she wanted was for her first impression on her new RA to be bothersome.

Eliza reached down to her desk to shift a pen that had been shifted out of place before readjusting everything else. The interaction with Abby hadn't been very settling; she couldn't help but think maybe her roommate wasn't all that interested in being roommates, or maybe had decided not even to come to college after all. The whole situation brought Eliza a sort of slight anxiety that she would've not minded avoiding until classes started, at least.

She was just about to call Angelica to ask for a second, and not so hastily formed, opinion when the already halfway open door swung back violently on its hinges, revealing a short statured girl, almost completely out of breath but trying her hardest to grin. "You're Eliza! I'm Maria," she pointed at her roommate and then back at herself before taking a few steps to cover the distance between them and hug Eliza, who was taken slightly aback but hugged her back nonetheless. "They told me 804 instead of 408," she said, pulling back, "Gave me the wrong key and everything." Eliza thought she must've sprinted down those four flights of steps and down the hallway to be so breathless. Her curly brown hair was frizzy from the effort combined with the humidity of the building.

Eliza laughed and shrugged, "First the elevators are busted, and now this. Someone's getting fired for sure."

"Quite the institution we've chosen," Maria feigned disgust, rolling her eyes before busting into another smile. Something behind Eliza caught her interest, "I have the same pillow, the gray one! It's. . ." She trailed off, suddenly way less excited about the matching decor. "Upstairs." She groaned and Eliza couldn't help but bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from giggling at her roommate's childish pout. She wasn't anything like the persona that Eliza had assigned to her after she ignored her emails; just by the minute that Maria had been in the same room as Eliza she had felt significantly more cheery, though that wasn't difficult to achieve after the relatively rough morning she'd had. Either way, she was incredibly more excited about the year knowing her roommate wasn't invisible. And that she seemed really bright and sweet. Eliza found herself wanting to know way more about her new friend than the mere three facts she knew, and if that took spending a couple intensively laborious hours of repacking and moving an entire room, she was willing.

"I'll help you bring your stuff down if you get us frozen lemonades," Eliza offered, watching Maria's face light up. The freckles peppered across her nose by the sun got squished together when she smiled. Eliza didn't know what to do with this information but it made her tummy do the tiniest of flips.

"Deal."

Eliza followed Maria out the door and into the hall.


	2. chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am sorry for the lack of plot rn i am workin on it its a lil hard to work my way to rn, bear with me!!

Maria Reynolds had never been a neat or organized person, but she before living with a roommate she decided she would try. Everything in her room-though no longer her room-had been set up carefully in order to increase the amount of time it would take for her to completely ruin her system and resort back to the ways of her room back at home: littered with clothes strewn about the floor and furniture, pens in random locations, and playbills stacked on every surface available. But for now, everything was in place which would make it way easier to move four floors down. 

Maria fumbled with the key, finally getting it to open the door and let Eliza move in before her. "I don't even know where to start," she said, now standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. The reality of the impending strangeness that may come with having a stranger navigate her belongings wasn't even thought of; Maria wasn't shy, and if she'd be sharing a room with this girl then they might as well get familiar. 

"Tapestry?" Eliza suggested, her tone a little more hesitant than it was downstairs. 

Maria nodded, moving to crawl on top of the bed and stand to reach the clothespins attached to adhesive strips hanging the fabric to the wall. She glanced over to see Eliza doing the same, the hem of her t-shirt creeping up to expose her side a little when she reached up. Maria caught herself looking for a second too long and quickly refocused herself on detaching the tapestry from its fastenings; the situation was innocent enough but she still felt like she was intruding. 

Maria quickly was able to release the tapestry from the clothespins and peel the adhesive strips off the wall and only noticed that Eliza was struggling when she was nearly done with her side. She couldn't seem to separate the adhesive from the wall and her eyebrows were furrowed in frustration. "Help?" Maria offered, moving over to her roommate's side, who surrendered the feat immediately. 

"I can get sheets?" Eliza asked more than stated, looking at Maria for permission. 

"Yes! Then we can just make our first trip," Maria took her hands away from the wall to step off the comforter and sheets so that Eliza could pull them away from the mattress. The other girl dropped to her knees to begin untucking the rest of the linens from underneath, working around the perimeter of the bed. As she reached for the last corner, the shift in weight caused Maria to nearly topple on top of Eliza, who reacted quickly and brought a hand up to Maria's hip to prevent her from falling over. 

"I'm sorry, that was poor planning," Eliza said quickly. Maria wondered if she even realized her hand was still lingering. By the sudden quick removal and blush, Maria would guess she didn't. 

"Honestly breaking my collarbone before classes start might be the best way to go," the shorter girl laughed, turning away from Eliza to get the last adhesive strip off the wall. And a little bit to hide her blush. But mostly to get the last adhesive strip off the wall. 

She finally was able to bundle the tapestry up in her arms, and Eliza did the same with the sheets. "At this rate, we're gonna be here until classes start," Eliza joked, letting Maria lead the way out of the room and back toward the staircase. 

Maria laughed and gnawed on the inside of her cheek. Eliza Schuyler was adorable, and Maria's goal was to repress that thought until it was no longer present anywhere in her mind.

______________________________________

"I can't believe the elevators started working right after we got everything downstairs," Maria was sitting on the stone encircling the fountain in the quad, her back to the water. It was just high enough up for her feet to dangle off the ground while Eliza's toes could touch the pavement below. 

Eliza brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose in mock annoyance. "The gods really have it out for us, I think," she glanced over at Maria, who'd gone to take another sip of lemonade. In reality Eliza didn't mind all that much; it got the both of them out of the Ultimate Frisbee competition that their floor had decided to host in the quad, and she got the frozen lemonade she'd wanted since she stepped on campus. That combined with the slight spray of water on the backs of her arms from the fountain made the hot August day bearable to experience outside. "Out of all the possible activities," Eliza gestured across the quad to the majority of their floor mates engaged in a half ass game of Ultimate Frisbee. 

"I'm kinda mad we're missing it since I'm the best at Frisbee," Maria said confidently while gnawing on her straw. 

Eliza cocked an eyebrow, "You don't strike me as the Frisbee type." 

Maria brought a hand to her chest in faux offense, "I'm pretty sure that's an insult. What type _am_ I?" 

"Like. . .curling," Eliza said with a smirk, allowing her cup to rest on her thigh and create a ring of cold condensation on her bare skin. 

Maria's jaw dropped melodramatically, and Eliza was reminded of one Peggy Schuyler. "I hate the cold. And any form of sweeping." Eliza added those facts on to the growing list of Things She Knew About Maria Reynolds. So far the list had extended past the three basic facts into a relatively comprehensive and diverse list, all through various series' of question and answer while they moved Maria's things down into 408. From talking Eliza knew her roommate was an only child, the first in her family to go to college, and listened to too much Broadway, among other things. From being around her things for an extended period of time, Eliza learned her favorite color was bright red, she not only watched but had boxed sets of shitty reality TV, and had an astonishing lipstick collection. "I'm gonna pin you as a bowler," Maria said after a contemplative pause that she spent looking Eliza up and down exaggeratedly. 

"I still use the bump-" Eliza cut herself off, shifting away from Maria and narrowing her eyes. "Was that a fucking bowling pun?" She tried to maintain a look of feigned disgust but the corners of her mouth were betraying her, tugging her lips into a dumb grin. "You didn't even say 'you strike me as a bowler' you went the pin route?" 

"That woulda been way too easy," Maria shot back matter of factly. hopping off the edge of the fountain and waiting for Eliza to do the same. 

"Okay, but it would've made more sense," Eliza stood and shook her lemonade in an attempt to get the frozen part at the bottom to melt enough to go through the straw. "ID time?" 

Maria shifted her phone in her hand and checked the time, "Yeah, we gotta split," she said with a wide grin over her shoulder at Eliza. 

"One more pun and I'm requesting a transfer," Eliza said jokingly and bit on the inside of her cheek when she heard Maria laugh from in front of her. The truth was, Eliza felt especially lucky to have Maria as a roommate. Even though they'd only spent a couple hours in each other's company, they had already fallen into a routine of poking fun and getting to know each other through jokes and dumb puns and small anecdotes when presented the opportunity. Something about Maria's sense of humor and personality and interests and the way she carried herself just made Eliza comfortable, which seemed like the great start to a horror movie. Or a solid friendship. 

Eliza picked up the pace, jogging a couple steps to stay in pace with Maria. They had only been told a million times that they had to pick up their student IDs within a certain time frame, and Eliza guessed Maria didn't want today to be any more eventful than it already was. 

The walk to the student center was easy enough; Eliza's worries of getting constantly lost in the big city were dulled when she learned Maria was from across the bridge in Brooklyn. She knew the streets and shops much better than Eliza, and could easily navigate through crowds and traffic to get to the places they needed to be. Eliza was thankful; she wasn't the best under pressure in tight spaces. They made it to the Student ID booth with several minutes to spare, clearly not enough time, Eliza could tell from the annoyed looks on the faces of those helping. 

"Schuyler." 

"Reynolds." 

Each of them spoke a little breathlessly from the speed walk. 

"Remember you have a floor meeting tonight at 7," the ID lady handed each of them their cards. "And make sure to check your event schedules throughout the week." It was obvious she had reminded hundreds of students of those things. Eliza and Maria responded politely before shooting each other a quick glance and heading outside. 

Once on the sidewalk, Eliza looked at her ID card and paused, "Nooooo." Now it was her time to pout, and she leaned back against the brick of the building. "They used the wrong one, I sent in a different one." Eliza wasn't usually so easily bothered by small things such as this but it was the ID card she'd use for almost everything throughout the year, and seeing the wrong picture on it every time she pulled it out wasn't the best thing to have happen. 

Maria reached to pinch the card between two fingers and pull it out of Eliza's grasp. The taller girl realized too late and despite her efforts to maintain possession of the card, she lost it to Maria. 

"What's wrong with it, it's fine!" Maria rolled her eyes playfully before bringing it closer to her face for further inspection. 

"My nose is crinkly and dumb," Eliza folded her arms across her chest and stood up straight from where she had leaned against the wall. 

Maria looked closer, furrowing her eyebrows, "Yeah, but it's also the cutest." 

Eliza's arms tightened across her chest for a second before she reached to snatch the card out of Maria's grip, "I mean, if you say so." 

"Which I do," Maria sing-songed, starting to walk back in the direction of their dorm. The meeting wasn't for a while, but truthfully they hadn't made much progress on setting up Maria's side of the room, just moving everything downstairs. 

Eliza's mind was racing. Maria had called her cute in an innocent, friend way, but it made her feel different than that. Warmer. She was really going to have to get a grip on that, she thought, whatever that was. She had had crushes before and they felt similar to this, but she forced her brain to force that thought back into whichever dumb part of her mind created it. 

She didn't realize until several seconds later that Maria had disappeared into the crowd of people walking the streets. 

"Hey, wait up!"


End file.
